I’M not a terrible cook – I’m just very lazy. I am mostly by myself during the week and cooking for one is never much fun, especially when there is cleaning up to do afterwards.

But I do enjoy good food, so when I was invited to a dinner party cookery school at Middleton Lodge, just outside Middleton Tyas, near Scotch Corner, I was keen to pick up some tips and try to impress my fiancé, who does 99.9 per cent of the cooking at home.

Taking my mum, Sue, with me so that I would have someone to copy if my attempts started going horribly wrong, we met six other students whose ability ranged from non-existent to knowledgeable but needing refinement.

We chatted over coffee in front of a cosy fire in the bar area of the house before our chef Rob Taylor beckoned us into the kitchen and doled out aprons.

He and pastry chef Adam Fenwick were very relaxed, and instantly put us at ease despite the ambitious menu we had to somehow create in just four hours, which included focaccia bread, a starter of crab ravioli, shellfish bisque and roasted salsify; roasted pheasant breast with sprout and pancetta puree, honey roasted roots, game jus and potato pressing main course; followed by lemon tart, raspberry sorbet and lime crunch.

Rather than each of us making the full menu, we worked as a team and brought all the elements together.

I volunteered to make the fresh pasta for our crab ravioli – something I’ve always wanted to try – and under Rob’s watchful eye I created a well with double zero flour to fill with six eggs and slowly folded in the flour to make the dry but sticky dough.

It was messy but not as difficult as I expected, and using the pasta maker was fun and easy. “Only use a small piece of the dough at a time or it will stretch out of the window,” advises Rob.

“And create a loop with the dough in the machine so you can keep turning the handle without having to carefully take the pasta sheet out and replace it each time.”

He showed us how to make beautiful ravioli and tortellini parcels filled with a mixture of fresh crab meat, potato and garlic – and I actually felt quite proud of my attempt.

Rob has a strong food background, having made the quarter-finals of Masterchef the Professionals in 2012.

“I enjoyed it, but it was very stressful,” he says. “We had to arrive at the studio first thing in the morning and sometimes didn’t cook anything until late in the afternoon.”

Moving on to our main course, Rob gave us a lesson in butchery with each of us having a go at de-boning a whole pheasant.

He showed us how to remove the wish bone, then the breasts, then the two legs before letting us loose with sharpened knives with varying effects.

Unfortunately there was more meat on the carcass of my pheasant than on the breast fillets but it was a popular part of the course and I felt I had learnt a new skill I could get the hang of if I practised more at home.

Rob adds: “It’s often much cheaper to buy a whole bird than to get breast fillets, and you can then use the carcass to make a great stock.”

The dessert was a big hit. Mum was in charge of making the tangy lemon filling for our tarts and was thrilled when Adam complemented her on how it had turned out after being left to chill.

We got an early taste of the amazing lime crunch, made by a fellow pupil and Adam earlier in the day, which tasted like a fizzy sherbet sweet but was simply sugar and lime zest that had been dehydrated in the oven for a couple of hours.

The event was rounded off with two glasses of prosecco to accompany the fruits of our hard work – but not before we had a go at plating up the dishes so they truly looked like something Middleton Lodge’s kitchen would be proud to serve.

The result was absolutely delicious and it was difficult to believe I had played a part in crafting it. I certainly went away with new skills I want to try at home – although I might need to enlist a team of six before I attempt the full party menu.

For details on upcoming events at Middleton Lodge, visit www.middletonlodge.co.uk or call 01325 377977.